Starring Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Jean Stapleton, and Fred Clark
Directed by Vincente Minelli
Music by Jules Styne; Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Arthur Freed and his tight-knit Unit produced many of MGM's famous most famous musical productions, from The Wizard of Oz to Gigi...but by 1960, MGM and musicals in general were in trouble. Between the collapse of the studio system and television increasingly encroaching on older and family audiences, Freed's musicals were no longer the major cash cows they'd been through the mid-50's. Did Bells are Ringing allow the Freed Unit to go out in a blaze of glory, or should we hang up on this bell? Let's begin with a musical commercial for the New York answering service Susanwserphone, and find out...
The Story: Ella Peterson (Holliday) is a switchboard operator at Susanswerphone with a habit of getting involved with her clients, despite her cousin Sue (Stapleton) constantly reminding her she's only supposed to be giving messages. She's especially fond of playwright Jeff Moss (Martin), who just separated from his partner and is now supposed to come up with a play in 24 hours. She speaks to him in a warm, friendly old lady voice he calls "Mom."
Upset when she can't get through to him with a message telling him to write his play or else, she goes to his apartment to deliver it. He's smitten with her sincerity and honesty, though she nervously calls herself "Melisande Scott." That goes so well, she dresses up to bring messages to two of her other clients, a dentist (Bernie West) who composes songs on his air hose, and a young actor (Frank Gorshin) who needs to give up imitating Marlon Brando punks to get parts. She's not as happy when Jeff invites her to a fancy party where she feels out of place and small and runs out. Not to mention, one of their clients are actually gangsters using their "record" business as a front for illegal horse betting, and they're even less happy when Ella accidentally switches one of their orders.
The Song and Dance: Martin and Holliday make a surprisingly cute couple in this charming and colorful romantic comedy. You'd never guess Holliday was sick during filming, or that this would be her last movie. She's wonderful as sweet, nervous Ella, who is more at home spreading joy among strangers than at a party or bottling up her natural inclination to help. Stapleton and Eddie Foy Jr. have their own fun with the gangster subplot, especially when they're on a date at "The Gypsy" bar and she's reveling in his fancy talk. Gorshin and West are hilarious in their brief roles as Ella's most unique clients, especially Gorshin's attempt at a bad Brando imitation.
Favorite Number: We open with the title song against a montage of beautiful, glamorous ladies all waiting breathlessly for messages that only Susanswerphone can deliver. Holliday talks about how "It's a Perfect Relationship" between her and Jeff, even though they've never met. Bookie J. Otto Pranz (Foy Jr.) leads a chorus of unlikely gamblers in a subway tunnel extolling how "It's a Simple System." Ella and Jeff sing about how it's "Better Than a Dream" when she's thrilled to have met him and he's thrilled to have found a girl who is sweet, sincere, and able to push him to really work. Jeff sings on Times Square streets to tell all of New York how "I Met a Girl." Fed up with being told not to help and scared to explain everything to Jeff, Ella belts to Sue how "I'm Going Back" in a fare-thee-well finale.
The big ones here are the standards "Just In Time" and "The Party's Over." The latter is a sweet duet for Ella and Jeff as they dance and clown for tenement audiences before entering the high-society party. After the party goes badly, Ella flees and laments that "The Party's Over."
Trivia: More of the stage score was filmed but cut, including the comedy number for Ella and Inspector Barnes (Dort Clark) "Is It a Crime?" and the rest of "Mu Cha Cha." "Crime" exists and is included on the DVD, along with a new song for Dean Martin that was also filmed but cut, "My Guiding Star."
Holliday and Stapleton reprise their original roles from the Broadway production. It was a huge hit in 1956, running three years. A 2001 revival with Faith Prince as Ella had backstage problems and got poor reviews, barely lasting two months. It did better in a small-scale London revival in 2010 and in concerts in New York and Chicago.
What I Don't Like: What's an answering service, many modern viewers may ask? An answering service provided messages for business people or busy families who often didn't have the time to answer every phone call that came through in the mid-20th century. The arrival of affordable answering machines in the 70's and 80's killed them off quickly, well before cell phones came into regular usage.
Between the story revolving around a type of business that most people nowadays haven't heard of, the silly gangster side plot, and references to Brando method acting and all those celebrities in "Drop That Name' at the party, this musical is incredibly dated. I suspect that's a big part of the reason most subsequent revivals haven't done as well (even reviews for the Encores concert in 2006 complained about it).
The Big Finale: Charming romantic comedy is worth checking out for fans of Holliday, Martin, or the big Broadway shows of the 50's and 60's.
Home Media: Easily found in all major formats; DVD and Blu-Ray are currently available from the Warner Archives.
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